Australian designer Edward Linacre has received this year’s James Dyson Award with his Airdrop irrigation concept. The self-powered irrigation system draws inspiration from the Namib Desert beetle, which survives in the desert by collecting fog droplets on its wings.

Moisture is harvested out of the air to irrigate crops by an efficient system that produces large amounts of condensation. A turbine intake drives air underground through a network of piping that rapidly cools the air to the temperature of the soil where it reaches 100% humidity and produces water. The water is then stored in an underground tank and pumped through to the roots of crops via sub surface drip irrigation hosing.